Always and Forever
by QuillDragon23746
Summary: What if Draco and Hermione became friends before Hogwarts? Will Draco be able to get over his mud blood notions? This is a short prequel to my upcoming story: Sugar and Spice, which will be up shortly.


POP!

The sound of someone apparating into the children's park was rather loud but since it was lunch time, no one heard it.

"I is not supposed to bring you here, Master Draco. If Master and Mistress were to know of what Frilly has done, Frilly shall be punished badly, Master Draco." Frilly, young master Draco's house-elf, squeaked before proceeding to bang her head on the nearby tree trunk.

"No, Frilly, stop. It is not your fault. I ordered you to bring me to the Muggle World. And Father shall not know. I promise." Draco said, pulling Frilly away from the tree and looking worriedly at the bruise forming on her forehead. "You go on home. I'll call you when I need you. And Frilly, Mother and Father are not coming back from their vacation until three weeks later. So don't worry and don't punish yourself. Bye." The boy hugged the elf tightly before letting go.

There was a loud pop sound again and Frilly left just as quickly as she had come. Draco turned to the slide and with a gleeful cry began to play on it.

It was only some time later that he noticed someone was sitting on one of the swings, head bowed. It looked like a girl his age. She had very frizzy hair that was pulled into to pigtails. She had her back to him so he couldn't tell how she looked.

He walked closer to her and heard her sniffling. Oh my god, she was crying! And he knew nothing of what to do with crying girls.

He walked still closer to her. Cautiously. Slowly.

"Hi." He whispered into her ear when he was close enough.

"AHHH!" The poor girl turned her head so sharply backwards that he thought it would snap. But when she shrieked so loudly, he thought _his_ ears would bleed.

"Stop screaming!" he shouted back at the still-screaming girl, covering his precious ears.

She stopped immediately. She had the biggest eyes he had ever seen and they were chocolate - brown. Light freckles dotted her face. Her nose was small but her teeth-

She had buck-teeth.

She also had large tears pouring down her face.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scream in your ears. You just frightened me, is all." She said, softly, rubbing the tears from her face.

"It's fine." He said.

"Hey! Aren't you going to say sorry too?" she asked, placing her hands on her hips.

"Why should I say sorry? You're the one who screamed in my ears." He replied, hotly.

"Because you scared me. And I said sorry for that."

"No. I won't say sorry. Malfoy's never apologise. And never to filthy Muggleborns like you."

"That's rude. And what is a muggleborn?" She quickly lost her anger and her eyes sparkled at the new word.

"It is nothing. Why were you crying?" he really was curious to know that.

Her eyes clouded over again. She sniffed twice before answering. "My parents have gone to visit one of my sick relative and won't be bake for weeks. And they forgot to get me my Christmas present. And Mrs. Smith, my neighbour with whom I'm staying, says Santa won't give me any presents this year because I was being a bad girl and troubling her to take me to my parents. And I don't have any friends who'll give me some."

"There _is_ no Santa, Stupid! Only our parents give us presents. Nobody else, see. So you stop moping around." He said, his grey eyes boring into hers.

"But I still won't get any presents."

"That's okay, Stupid. Maybe you can give a present to someone else and their happiness will be present enough for you." He said with a smile, swinging on the one beside hers. She was about to object when he called her stupid but she realised he wasn't aware that he was using it.

"Hmm. Maybe you are right. I'll try doing that. Thank you. But I have to go now. It was nice meeting you. And you still haven't said sorry." She said and ran off towards the exit.

"Hey, Stupid, wait. I don't know your name. I'm Draco Malfoy. And you are?"

"Hermione Granger. I live just round the corner with Mrs. Smith. It was lovely meeting you too. Bye."

Draco kept swinging for some time afterwards before calling Frilly to take him back home. He didn't know why, but he had really like her. She was sweet. And she was the only person who had come close to being a real friend of his.

He would go to meet her again tomorrow. Yep, he definitely will.

…. …. …. ….

He went every day to meet her for two weeks but she was never there. He even went to that Mrs. Smith's house but didn't see her.

He wanted to meet her and talk to her again. He even wanted to get her a present but didn't know what to get. He knew nothing of her likes and dislikes.

It was the day before Christmas, and he had gone to Diagon Alley with Frilly. It was cold and snowing and he had his muffler wrapped tightly around him. His blond hair fell into his eyes every time the wind blew.

It was quite some time before he found the perfect thing to give to her.

So, after going back home, he dashed into his room and set to work on her gift. He would make it himself and it would be very beautiful. A couple of hours later, he was finished and ran out again to get some wrapping paper. With a lot of tearing and screaming and sticking out his tongue and redoing, he finally managed to wrap Hermione's gift in the red wrapping paper.

He was pretty glad with how it had turned out. She was going to really love this. He knew it.

He called Frilly and told her to take it to Hermione in the middle of the night. He also told her to stay there until Hermione found it and then come and tell him whether she liked it or not.

He then went to bed, thinking about all the presents he might get and of how she would feel after getting his.

…. …. …. …. ….

…. …. …. …. ….

I woke up early on Christmas morning and glanced out of the window. It was snowing slightly and I wanted to go out. I quickly pulled on my pair of jeans and my favourite woollen shirt and jacket. My scarf went around my neck and my hat over my head.

Once I was ready, I tip-toed out of my bedroom and down the stairs. I forgot about the creaking stair and when it creaked rather loudly, I thought Mrs. Smith would come and give me a good scolding.

Two weeks of being grounded and staying indoors was not fun. It kept snowing so wonderfully and I wanted to go out and play in the snow, but she never let me. I suppose she was more angry than I thought, when I broke all her crockery when she refused to take me to my parents.

I slowly opened the door and crept out. After closing the door, I went out to play. The snow feels so cool on my face. I think I'll go build a snowman. But where?

I know!

I'll build it under my Christmas tree. Its lights are still shining and all the decorations I made myself, are looking great on it. But what's that under it? Eeeee! It's a present.

I pick it up. It is really big and it is round. Is it a ball? And the wrapping is shabbily done. Like the wrapping paper was torn to bits and then stuck back on again, but I don't mind. There is also a note on it.

It says – To Dear Hermione, From Santa.

I quickly rip open the wrapping paper and I'm stunned. It is even better than I thought.

It was the biggest snow globe I'd ever seen. Inside, there was a huge castle with its light shining and there was a swing outside with a girl and a boy swinging. Funny, the girl looked a lot like me and the boy looked like … Draco. I turned it upside down and there under it were two words. – Hey, Stupid.

And I knew.

Draco had given me this present. So that meant, I have a friend. Maybe, this was Santa's present to me. A friend.

The white and blue glitter fell into the snow globe and it looked pretty beyond imagination. What's more, it looked handmade. He had spent some time to make this for me.

I smile. I know just what to give to him. I would meet him at the park today and give him his present.

…. …. …. …. ….

…. …. …. …. ….

Draco was sitting on the swing in the park when Hermione came there.

"Draco! Thank you! Oh, thank you so much!" She ran up to him and hugged him so tight, he couldn't breathe. "Did you make it yourself? Oh, it would have been so tough. You must have spent hours on it. No one has done that for me yet, except my parents who built me a tree-house for my birthday themselves. You don't know how much this means to me and -" She was rambling when he cut her off.

"I am glad you like it. The castle was one of my most favourite toys and I thought you might like it too." He grinned.

"Well, I got you something too." She said, taking out two charm necklaces. Each had a beautiful stone hanging from it – one with swirling grey colours and the other with chocolate brown colour.

"My father gave this to me on my fifth birthday, three years ago, and told me to give it to my best friend. Here, you take this brown coloured one. It matches my eyes and this grey one matches yours. We'll wear it around our necks and we'll never forget each other. We'll be best friends forever."

She hung the grey necklace around her neck and he did the same to the brown one.

"We'll never forget each other. Best friends always and forever."

…. …. …. …

They met together in the park for a week more before Draco told her he wouldn't be able to come back any more. His parents don't like it here and would never allow him to come.

He promised he would come when they aren't at home. They said they would miss each other and hugged tightly before he went.

Hermione's parents came back soon. She would go to the park every day and wait for him but he never came. The snow globe he'd given always sat at the table beside her bed. It was the first thing she saw when she awoke each morning and the last thing before going to bed each night.

Draco had another friend – Pansy, but they weren't as close as he and Hermione had become. He missed her more and more each day. He never spoke of her to anyone, but her necklace always stayed with him. His parents questioned him about it but he said he had found it fallen somewhere and taken it. They asked him to remove it but he never listened to them.

They both got their Hogwarts Acceptance letters and were eager to go there. Hermione, who had never forgotten the term 'muggleborns' that she'd heard from Draco, finally understood what it meant. She knew he had not liked her at first, but now that she figured he was a wizard (he didn't know what a TV was), she was sure she would meet him there.

Draco, not knowing anything about her magical abilities, had no such fantasies. He had followed his father's example and never spoke to muggles but he never believed they were filthy.

1st of September came pretty soon and they boarded the Hogwarts Express.

As luck would have it…

"Ugh!"

"Watch where you're going!"

They crashed into each other and looked up to see Brown/Grey eyes.

"Draco?"

"Stupid?"

The Fates knew they were best friends Always and Forever and they weren't going to change anything.

…. …. …. ….

 **Disclaimer: Harry Potter does not belong to me. hope you like this story. Please R &R.**


End file.
